i3 - January/February 2018 - 22

By Michael Petricone
G U E ST B LO G
Looking
at 2018
W
e entered 2017 with a new White House, a new
Congress, and many questions. President Trump had
few pre-existing relationships with tech companies,
and had run on a populist, America first platform. From a policy
perspective, we anxiously wondered what the implications
would be for our industry, and how we could work productively
with the administration to advance the tech economy.
Our strategy was to engage aggressively
with the White House and offer CTA
as a substantive policy resource on
our issues. Beginning with our co-hosting
the Tech Inaugural Ball in January, we
met with numerous White House and
senior agency officials to share our policy
priorities and recommendations. During
the White House's "Tech Week," CTA
participated in a small roundtable with
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and
National Economic Council Director
Gary Cohn. A number of our small business members attended an event with
SBA Administrator Linda McMahon.
And we have hosted White House
officials and staffers from the Federal
Communications Commission, Food
and Drug Administration and National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
at the CTA Innovation House.
In our discussions we discovered
a strong overlap between the White House
and tech industry agendas. We agreed on
a broad set of priorities
such as rural broadband,
Artificial
drones and the imporintelligence and
3D printing are
tance of apprenticeships
revolutionizing
and workplace training.
medical care.
The administration's top
priority is to create new American jobs,
and they know that the U.S. tech industry
is a critical part of the effort.
On some issues, such as trade and
immigration, we did not always see eye to
eye. Our response has been to speak out,
continue to engage with policymakers,
and make a substantive case that our
22
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
economic leadership requires bringing
the world's best to America and aggressively exporting our innovations abroad.
Further down Pennsylvania Avenue,
Congress struggled through a year of
division and partisanship. Thankfully,
tech industry priorities managed to
evade gridlock. CTA helped pass a law
allowing government employees to use
ridesharing services such
In Congress,
as Uber and Lyft. More, we
we will be
led the successful fight to
pushing for
House passage
enable hearing aids to be
of the Mobile
sold over the counter, draNow Act.
matically lowering prices
and enabling millions of Americans to
finally get the assistance they need.
We have a long Congressional to-do
list for 2018. We will be pushing for
House passage of the Mobile Now Act,
a Senate bill that will provide incentives
for 5G deployment and increased
rural broadband. The Senate must
complete action on self-driving car
legislation. And we are pleased that we
are moving forward on tax reform,
which has the potential to revitalize
American competitiveness by bringing
U.S. tax rates in line with those of
other industrialized economies.
Our greatest challenge this year
came not from the White House or
Congress, but from a generalized
Top: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. Bottom: Jean-Francois Monier/Getty Images.
Policy
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - January/February 2018